April 4, 2011

Bits of Kitchen

Here we are prior to move-in. Standing down by the washer and dryer, looking up a few steps into the kitchen.





















I'm sure at this point I was wondering how I would ever convince my realtor that the "sammich" windows between the kitchen and what would eventually be the hub room have to go. See the bench-type things? The lids lift up. Not sure, but maybe they were used to store winter hats and boots and stuff. Or small children.























Cabinets out. Oak veneer stripped off. Sandwich windows and one bin gone! We kept one bin. You'll see. Besides, if we took it out, we'd have to widen the staircase. Ugh.

















This is standing in the kitchen, looking down to the laundry area/back hall.


















And now. I love maple. Maple syrup. Maple wood. Norm is getting pretty handy in his woodshop. You can see that where one of the windows was there is now a carcass built in for a spice cupboard. Well away from the heat of the stove. The pantry cabinets, microwave and fridge will carry on to the right side of this work. The new lid on the bin has some mitre detailing I wasn't expecting. And the finish he sprayed on it is like glass. There is a vent on the side which is ducted to what will eventually be a fresh-air intake. Code for gas stove means that we need to have a hood fan, and the size of the hood fan we need means we have to have make-up air. No forced air heating (we have a boiler, not a furnace) means we have to import and heat the air from outside. I can't even begin to tell you what a pain that is going to be.

















And what else, you might reasonably wonder, could we possibly use this bin for?

















A Vroom closet, of course! What self-respecting kitchen would be without a one? A Vroom is a  handy gadget powered by the central vacuum, complete with 24' retractable hose, and auto on/off. All I have to do now is teach it to climb out of the closet and find the dirt by itself. On second thought, that's the stuff nightmares are made of. If you're interested, you can see the cheesy internet commercial here.

1 comment:

Norm Clark said...

The first picture of the "sammich" windows and dark oak paneling makes things appear much more attractive than was the reality. No matter how well constructed, and this work was itself a retrofit some 25 years ago, the fit and finish was very tired and very much in need of a "do-over".

As soon as Kathryn makes a decision on the cupboard door style, both the laundry cabinet and spice rack can be finished and crossed off the list.

The floor space immediately below the spice rack will finally become the location of Rory's food and water bowls. He will be overjoyed to finally have a permanent home for his bowls - they get moved daily as tools and materials demand and if he didn't have such a great nose, he would likely starve to death :)